What is considered a decent salary?

Answer 1

I have to second Ray, who said making more than you spend. I would like to add that salaries are dependent on the cost of living where you are as well. I make a great salary for most parts of the country, but in the small town in which I live, where the average home is $85,000, I am very comfortable and able to save and invest. If I lived in Manhattan, where the average apartment is over $1 million, I would be struggling.

So it matters where you live. It also matters what field you are in. A decent teacher's salary is very different from a decent salary for a surgeon.

Nevertheless, $35,000 a year seems to be a common marker for the middle class.

Answer 2

If you can afford a place to live, food, clothing, entertainment costs and save atleast some each year your making a decent salary personally I can live on 39,000 in NYC single living alone girlfriends or boyfriends will make your salary have to increase to keep a decent life style good luck

Answer 3

Making more money than you spend. We all have wants and needs and could feasibly spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more than we earn, which is why credit cards are such big business. Figure out a comfortable lifestyle and add about 10% for long term savings and that's a decent salary. People live paycheck to paycheck on $10,000 a year as they do $100,000 a year. The question to success isn't how much you earn as much as how much you spend.

Answer 4

I don't make a lot of money, but I have 6 weeks vacation. I live on the beach and get to watch the sunrise every day if I choose. I have a great family that loves me and I love to ride my bicycle and take long drives as well as camp on the beach.

The average wage in my county is 26k, I make double that, so I live like a king compared to the average Joe in my county. My mortgage is only $537 a month and everything is ok. I even have a hammock and a bobblehead Jesus.

Answer 5

It really depends most on YOU!! Your lifestyle, the size of your family, (if any) the cost of living where you live, & most important of all your ability to budget your money.

The type work you perform is also a factor.

If my job is handing flyers to people as they walk past me on the street ......$10,000 would be "decent" !!

On the other hand if I'm a doctor $60,000 isn't decent.

You can see what average pay for different occupations in different areas on the web.

Answer 6

Depends on who you are, where you live, etc... I have heard studies that say that once you are at the point that you are not in abject poverty (that is, you have food and a roof over your head) that more money doesn't make you more happy... Just live below your means...

If I was forced to give an answer though, I'd say that $40,000 is decent.

Answer 7

Depends on where you live, and what your expenses are.


In San Fran $125,000 is decent
in LA $115 is decent
in NYC $195 is decent

in the Middle of American $55 is decent

Answer 8

depends a lot on your age and education. high school dropout might think 7 bucks at McD's is decent. someone with a masters in business, or a doctor of medicine or jurisprudence would feel shamed by 100,000.

everything is relative.

Answer 9

making enough to live well and saving $150.000 a year. with buyout and stock options yearly increase . two months paid vacation at company expense..full medical and insurance coverage.

Answer 10

40,000 a yr. doesn't sound like much to some people, but if you budget well, you should be quite comfortable.